Actually it's still open. Every time an arena negotiation falls through and every time relocation talks pop up again, we're reminded that had the Kings won a championship that year (and by proxy had that Horry shot missed), the Kings would have a future in Sacramento. It's bigger than missing out on a championship, but we couldn't quite see it at the time. We just thought we'd have another chance at the title the next year.

This. 2002-2003 was our year. No one seems to remember that the kings had the top rated defense that year as well as one of the top offenses. No one was stopping the kings...until Webber's knee popped. My high school self wanted to cry during that game.

That injury changed him forever too. He was still a good player after that but that point marked his transition from a player who played at the rim into a guy who relied too heavily on his jumpshot. He was pretty good at hitting that shot, but he just took far too many of them and used it as a crutch. I can't blame a guy whose had surgery on both knees for trying to play that way, though, but I think that injury was the moment where things started to go downhill for the franchise.

I don't think so. I'm fairly sure it was fixed to go to 7 games, though, which did screw the Kings over depending on the situation. The Kings got the benefit of some calls in the other games, but Game 6 was just one of those situations where it was do or die to force the series to 7, so that's when the bad calls are most obvious.

I recently re-watched Game 6 of this series and it made me so depressed. I was only 12 at the time, so I couldn't tell how incredibly obvious it was that the game was fixed. When Kobe elbowed Mike Bibby's face and Bibby got called for the foul, I was so disgusted.

I also loved how Bill Walton kept on questioning the officiating throughout the game. He's the man.

because David Stern willed Robert Horry's shot to go in. If not, the Kings would have a commanding 3-1 lead and most likely would have won the series. yeah, some of the referee calls were questionable, but it happens all the time in the NBA.

The 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings presents a stunning example of game and series manipulation at its ugliest. As the teams prepared for Game 6 at the Staples Center, Sacramento had a 3–2 lead in the series. The referees assigned to work Game 6 were Dick Bavetta, Bob Delaney, and Ted Bernhardt. As soon as the referees for the game were chosen, the rest of us knew immediately that there would be a Game 7. A prolonged series was good for the league, good for the networks, and good for the game. Oh, and one more thing: it was great for the big-market, star-studded Los Angeles Lakers.

In the pregame meeting prior to Game 6, the league office sent down word that certain calls — calls that would have benefitted the Lakers — were being missed by the referees. This was the type of not-so-subtle information that I and other referees were left to interpret. After receiving the dispatch, Bavetta openly talked about the fact that the league wanted a Game 7.

"If we give the benefit of the calls to the team that's down in the series, nobody's going to complain. The series will be even at three apiece, and then the better team can win Game 7," Bavetta stated.

As history shows, Sacramento lost Game 6 in a wild come-from-behind thriller that saw the Lakers repeatedly sent to the foul line by the referees. For other NBA referees watching the game on television, it was a shameful performance by Bavetta's crew, one of the most poorly officiated games of all time.

Fandome aside game 6 was the worst officiated game I have ever seen in my life and I know I'm not alone in thinking that. You could not even look at Shaq or Kobe without being sent to the line, while they could elbow in you in the face and you would still get the foul. There really is no debate, go find a recording of that game and watch the last two quarters and you will be sick to your stomach by the end.

Edit: I can't see your flair so I just hope you aren't a Lakers fan, if you are well then disregard what I said and enjoy that ring you got in 2002.

while I love the NBA on NBC, they are giant dickheads when it comes to any of their programming being on youtube. Imagine how much that would suck not being able to watch all those highlights. You'll see what I mean when you want to watch highlights of Team USA this summer and can't because NBC Universal owns the rights.

Great, wake up hungover, hop on reddit and my day somehow gets worse. I was 10 when this happened, huge Kings fan and basketball fan in general. Watching this series crushed me and turned me into a cynical asshole about the NBA and it's officiating. Now this was an amazing shot though and it was as if the series was done once it went in.

I was at a Dodger game that night. They showed the last shot on the big screen. That shot went 3/4 of the way down, then rattled out. 56,000 people went "YYEEEAAAAAAAAUUUUUUWWWWWWWGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" followed by about 2,000 adding "Fuck!"

Oh come on. The amount of contact that Bibby had on Kobe happens every single time there is an inbound play. That isn't a foul. They also didn't even call the foul until a little bit after Kobe hit Bibby with the elbow and Bibby fell down.

That wasn't the foul i was talking about actually, there was another one where both players were squared up and kobe just knocks him with his elbow. The one you're talking about is the one where kobe just ran over bibby.

That's not the one i was talking about. I've never been able to find it on youtube, but it's just basically kobe and bibby squared up, kobe swings his elbow at bibby's jaw, connects, and bibby gets called for the foul. I even remember a fan, a few minutes later, made a sign that said something like 'how can you foul someone with your jaw'?

I love this shot, but I can't help but laugh at how there aren't many comments here considering the conspiracy talk that flared up during the Thunder/Lakers series. We're so fickle about discussing how terrible NBA reffing is.